El Adde, Geddo - a name that will live in infamy

The day after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a speech before the house of congress, December 8th 1941 marked the entry of the United States into WWII as a combatant.


President Franklin D. Roosevelt: Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

In my opinion January 15th 2016 is on of a string of dates (many in my lifetime) which will live in infamy in the history of the Kenyan nation. We all know these dates, some of use have been alive for each of these dates in the history of our nation

1. April 2, 2015 - Garissa Attack 
2. November 23 2014 - Mandera Bus Attack 
3. July 7 2014 - Mandera Quarry Attack 
4. June 15 - 17 2014 Mpeketoni Attack 
5. September 21, 2013 - Westgate Attack 
6. Weekend of November 10th 2012 - Baragoi Attack 
7. December 2007 - February 2008 - PEV 
8. November 28 2002 - Kikambala Attack 
9. August 7th 1998 - US embassy attack 
10. August 1997 - Kayabombo clashes 
11. February 10th 1984 - Wagala Massacare 
12. August 1982 - Kenya Airforce Coup 
13. 1963 - 1967 - Shifta Insurgency 
14. The Mau Mau Emergency

As I write these dates I know it's not an exhaustive list, it's only a partial list and I've tried to hit the major dates for these tragedies that have happened in Kenya. I could complete the list but for two reasons:

1. It's sad, on each of those days, people with hopes and dreams, Kenyans and others have all lost their lives
2. We're a young nation 53 years this December, yet the list above of 14 mass murder events works out to 1 mass murder event every 3.7 years - and that list isn't even conclusive nor does it take into account that some of those events lasted for years. If I was to do an exhaustive list of all the mass murder events in our history that would be a blog post all by itself (maybe I will). As a young nation how much bloodshed and murderous (yes each of those events was cold blooded mass murder) can we take? We're only 53 - what will that list look like in 2063? 

The worst part about these gruesome statistics (that's what they are after we're done with our hashtags and social media condolences) is that we do this to our selves either by being the perpetrators or facilitating the foreign perpetrators before and after the fact. 

Also lets just not have the discussion on how many actual perpetrators (trigger men) and master minds (planners) have ended up in Kenyan prisons as a result of planning theses actions......

Lastly not that I've note included all the bombings that happened in Nairobi & Mombasa over the past 4 years.  

After that extremely long introduction let me get to the purpose of this article, El Adde, that town in Geddo Somalia - that we have all spend the past 72 hours Googling and Tweeting about - where as of now an unknown number of Kenyan soldiers and Somali civilians + Al-Shabaab terrorists have perished, will perish or in the process as you read of this of .... perishing ( I say unknown, because our GOK is mum and you can't believe Al-Shabaab either)

What we know is that people died, soldiers, grand fathers, fathers, sons, uncles, brothers, mothers, daughters, grandmothers, aunties ,sisters, cousins, civilians & terrorists died.

I don't know if for some it was painless (I hope it was) - I'm sure for others it was painful (I hope it was for the terrorists).  Before I continue I'll say one thing - I hope the truth comes out...

From what we know the KDF AMISOM base was attacked at 0530hrs with between one and three VIED (vehicle born, improvised explosive devices) after which following a pattern they have replicated at least twice in the last two years the terrorists then proceeded to rush the base en mass firing automatic weapons and shoulder mounted rockets. From the now banned pictures, circulating on social media we can assume that some of those shoulder mounted rockets were armor piercing.

During this firefight (an this is where we're left hanging) an unknown number of KDF soldiers, were killed and by that would mean that enemy combatants were also killed (historically looking at how ALS - Al-Shabaab - I'm tired of writing their full name - has fared in encountering KDF - they have to have suffered casualties) 

When the firefight was done - reports indicate that the AMISOM base was overrun, KDF soldiers, retreated or fled, some were captured, some were killed and their equipment was seized by ALS.

Over the past three days this has been the information as a nation, we've fed off of and tried hard to process in order to find out if our soldiers are safe.  

Based on this information alone I have a lot of questions to ask, check out my next article..... this one is already too long..... 

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